Leather-splitting machine.



W. B. KE|GHLEY.- LEATHER SPLITTING MACHINE.

l,1349?%7o APPLICATION FILED JULY 9, 1913. I 6,

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W. B. KEIGHLEY.- LEATHER SPLITTING MACHINE.

I APPLICATION FILED JULY 9, I913. 1,1 34,747. Patented Apr. 6, 1915.

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W. B. KEIGHLEY. LEATHER SPLITTING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED JULY 9,1913. 1 1,134,747, Patented Apr. 6, 1915.

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W. B. KEIGHLEY.

LEATHER SPLITTING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED JULY 9. 1913.

5 SHEETS-RHEET 4.

Patented Apr. 6, 1915.

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WILLIAM BOTTOIVILEY KEIGHLEY, 0F VINELAND, NEW- JERSEY.

LEATHER-SPLITTING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed July 9, 1913. Serial No. 778,104.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM B. KEIGH- LEY, a citizen of the United States, residing in Vineland, New Jersey, have invented certain Improvements in Leather-Splitting Machines, of which the following is a specification.

One object of the invention is to provide a novel form of splitting machine which shall simultaneously trim one edge of a piece of leather and split it in a plane at right angles to the trimmed edge, in such manner as to form two parts each substantially half the thickness of the original piece and connected together along said trimmed edge, the machine also including means for turning one of such parts through an angle of substantially 180 to cause itvto lie in the plane of the other part, and thereafter pressing the completed piece to give to its parts a permanent set in a single plane.

Another object of the invention is to provide a machine having the above characteristics which shall be simple, substantial, inexpensive to build, easy to operate. and which shall include novel means for insuring the passage through it of a leather piece after it has been fed thereto.

These objects and other advantageous ends I secure as hereinafter set forth, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, illustrating a machine constructed according to my invention and capable of carrying out my novel method of operation; Fig. 2 is a plan of the machine shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the line aa, Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a detached perspective of certain of the detail parts of the roll equalizing mechanism; Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective illustrating the preferred arrangement of cutting and turning mechanism forming part of my invention; Figs. 6 and 7 are perspectives illustrating the operation of the machine Fig. 8 is a front elevation of the feeding rollers used in the machine of Figs. 1 and 2.

In the above drawings, 1 represents the side members of the frame of my machine in which are provided bearings for a main driving shaft 2 actuated from a driving pulley 3. Also mounted in the frame, is a pair of feed rolls 3 and 4, arranged one above the other at the front of the machine, and to the rear of said rolls is a second pair of rolls 5 and 6, designed to crush out or flatten the split and turned pieces of leather. The lower feed roll 3 has fixed to it a gear wheel 7 meshing with a pinion 8 fixed in a suitable manner to the driving shaft 2. This latter also carries a second pinion (not shown) PatentedApr. 6, 191 5.

which meshes with a pinion 9 rotatably mounted on a short shaft 10 journaled at one side of the machine and meshing with a gear wheel 11 fixed to the upper feed roll 4. The pinion 9 also meshes with a gear wheel 12 fixed to the upper flattening roll 6- and this latter also carries a gear wheel 13 meshing with a second gear wheel 14 fixed to the lower flattening roll 5.

Immediately to the rear of the feeding rolls 8 and 4 I provide a trimming knife 15 forming part of orattached to a plate 16 mounted on a transversely extending portion 17 of the frame of the machine, to which it is held by screws 18 in such manner as to permit of its adjustment toward or from the feed rolls 3 and 4. This knife l5 has its cutting edge substantially vertical and immediately adjacent it I mount a sec-' ond knife 19 whose cutting edge lies in a substantially horizontal plane at right angles to the cutting edge of the knife 15 and parallel to the lines of the rolls 3 and 4. One end of this second knife isspaced away from the cutting edge of the knife 15 by a certain predetermined distance and to the rear of these two knives I mount a turning plate 20 having a relatively sharp front edge 21 substantially parallel to the cutting edge of the knife119; the plate thereafter changing its shape so as to be capable of turning a piece of leather sliding over it through an angle of about 180; it being noted from Fig. 2 that the edge of this turning plate 20, immediately adjacent the rear part of the knife 15, is substantially parallel therewith though spaced a distance away from the same.

The splitting fixed to a plate knife 19 is mounted on or 21 slotted forthereception of a pair of holding screws 22 designed to permit ofits adjustment toward and from the roll 8 by amounts which may be regulated by a pair of set screws 28 mounted in upwardly projecting portions 24 of the supporting frame structure 17. It will be noted that the turning plate 20 terminates immediately in front of the flattening rolls 5 and 6 so as to deliver thereto the pieces of leather as soon as they have been properly actedon.

Upon a transverse member of the frame, in front of and substantially parallel with the feeding rolls 3 and 4, I mount a bar 71 on which is adjustably fixed a collar or abutment 72 in order to limit the movement of a guide plate 73 loosely mounted on the rod 71. Thus the collar 72 is so placed that when it is engaged by the hub or face of the guide plate or disk 73, the opposite face ofthe latter is substantially within the plane of the cutting edge of the knife 15.

In order that the machine shall properly perform its functions, it is advisable if not necessary, that the cutting edge of the knife 19 lie mid-way between though slightly to the rear of the two feed rolls 3 and 4, and in order that it may be capable of operating on leather pieces of widely varying thickness, 1 provide some form of equalizing mechanism whereby the feed rolls are permitted to move toward and from each other while being always maintained at equal distances from the cutting edge of said knife. For this purpose I may employ any of a number of devices and in Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive, I have illustrated the preferred arrangement of. parts for obtaining the desired end. In this combination, the shaft of the roll 3 is journaled in boxes 25 slidable in suitable ways formed in standards 26 projecting upwardly from the body of the frame 1. The roll 4 has its shaft likewise mounted in a pair of boxes 27 respectively slidable in the ways containing the boxes 25. The two sets of boxes and with them the rolls 3 and 4, are at all times forced toward each other by pairs of springs 29 and 29 which act through U-shaped yoke pieces 30 and are attached to or mounted in the standards 26 in any suitable manner.

In the present instance the springs 29 are mounted in holders 31 formed in the frame 1, while the springs 29 are confined between the yokes 30 and cross bars 32 supported on bolts 33 carried by the standards 26. The Ways for the reception of the boxes 25 and 27 are preferably formed by a pair of removable frames 34 mounted in suitable cavities of the standards 26 and suspended from the bars 32 by rods 35. The frames 34 have mounted in their opposite sides a pair of bars 36 and 37 both of which at their lower ends are pivoted to an equalizing lever 38 and at their upper ends are similarly pivoted to a second equalizing lever 39. The former of these levers is pivoted to the bottom cross bar 40 of the frame 34 and the latter is similarly pivoted to or fulcrumed on the top cross bar 41 of said frame. Each of the lower boxes 25 is rigidly attached to the bar 36 by a screw or bolt passing through a hole 42, Fig. 4, while each of the upper boxes 27 is similarly connected to the bar 37 by a screw or bolt passing through a hole 43 therein.

In order to insure the movement of the leather pieces past the knives l5 and 19 after they have been released by the rolls 3 and 4, I may provide any suitable feeding device immediately to the rear of said i main feed rolls, and one form of such mech anism is shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 8. lt consists of two pairs of conical rollers 81 and 8283, having roughened surfaces to facilitate their gripping of the rollers of the upper pair 8283 are fixed to spindles mounted in bearings 84 and 85 carried by a bracket 86 mounted on the transverse frame member 17. Said roll- (Fig. 8), lie immediately adjacent each other above a horizontal plane passing through the cutting edge of the knife 19 and they have driving pulleys 87 and 88, which through belts 90 and 91 are actuated from the pulleys on the driving shaft 2, each of said belts being suitably guided by idler pulleys 89 and 89 so that they lead in the proper direction from the pulleys 87 and S8. The rollers 80 and 31 of the second pair are likewise supported immediately adjacent each other below the h orizontal plane of the edge of the knife 19, being respectively mounted on spindles supported in bearings 92 and 93 which in turn are attached to a bracket 94 fixed to the frame member 17 'lhe spindles of the latter rollers have fixed to them pulleys 95 and 96 respectively which through belts 97 and 98 are operatively connected to other pulleys fixed to the driving shaft 2, and there are also two pairs of idler pulleys 99 and 100 whereby said two belts are properly directed.

The pieces of leather which my method and machine are particularly designed to utilize are the narrow scraps of varying length and thickness whose width is so small that they cannot be used in the manufacture of shoes. These pieces are of relatively irregular shape and under conditions of op eration if one of their longitudinal edges is comparatively straight, it is placed against that face of the guiding disk-73 farthest away from the collar 72 and is delivered to the feed rolls 3 and 4 which are so set as to grip the thinnest piece of leather which can be fed to them. If however, the leather piece is of greater thickness than the distance between the feed rolls, these latter move apart against the action of the springs 29 and 29 by reason of the equalizing mechanism heretofore described. This separation of the feed rolls afiects them both equally, so that the cutting edge of the knife 19 is maintained at equal distances from both of them, regardless of their distance from each other. Said rolls therefore deliver the leather piece X, (Figs. 6 and 7) to this knife 19 and at the same time cause it to engage the cutting edge of the knife 15, with the result that said latter knife trims one of the leather, and

the longitudinal edges of the leather strip so as to make it perfectly straight as well as perpendicular to the surface of said face. At the same time the knife 19 splits the leather to within a predetermined distance of this trimmed straight edge, depending upon the distance of the lmife 19 from the knife 15, and the two parts and m are respectively taken between the rollers of, the two pairs 8283 and 81-80. -These latter are so rotated by their several driving belts that the leather piece is drawn to the rear and is engaged by the turning plate 20 whose edge 21 lies between said two parts an and w of the leather. As the piece moves to the 'rear, this plate 20 turns its upper portion on the trimmed edge as an axis through an angle of 180. Immediately thereafter, the leather is gripped by the flattening rolls 5 and 6 and as it is in a moist and softened condition, these latter crush or bend it into a flat form, so compacting it along the portion trimmed by the knife that both of its faces are substantially plane or fiat. A piece of leather so formed obviously has a width practically double that of the original piece and is available for a number of uses, particularly in the construction of heel lifts. Even if the original piece of leather should have holes therethrough, these latter would neither interfere with the carrying out of my method nor would they be disadvantageous in the finished product. On the contrary they would advantageously lighten the heel lifts and assist in giving the desired form to the finished heel.

It is of course, obvious that the flattening rolls 5 and 6 are so mounted in their bearings as to also be free to separate in order to accommodate leather pieces of varying thickness and for this purpose they may be sup ported in any desired or suitable manner.

Iclairn: a I

1. The combination of two sets of main feeding rolls; a knife mounted to partially split a flat piece of material presented to it by one pair of rolls; means for turning one of the layers of material formed through substantially 180 degrees before said material is engaged by the second pair of rolls; two pairs of conical feeding rolls adjacent the knife for moving the material between the two sets of main feeding rolls; and means for driving said conical rolls.

2. The combination of two sets of main feed rolls; a horizontal knife mounted adj a-' cent said rolls in position to partially split; a flat piece of material presented by one set of feed rolls; a vertical knife mounted to trim the edge of the material while it is be ing split by the first knife; means for turning one of the layers of material formed by the splitting through an angle of 180 so as to permit of the piece'passing between the second set of the feed rolls; conical feed rolls for delivering the material to said second set of main feed rolls; and means for causing the main rolls of the first set to move through equal distances when they separate to permit the passage of the piece of material.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM BOTTOMLEY KEIGHLEY.

Witnesses:

CHARLES P. BREWER,- A. MAE DURFEE.

C'opies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, I). G. 

